ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
I study the construction and mitigation of AI hype through claims in machine learning research and about machine learning technology. Using philosophical and qualitative methods, I (1) analyze how hype emerges as claims about contributions and capabilities circulate through interconnected communities and (2) develop norms of responsible communication to counter it. Currently, I am applying this approach to hype in Carceral AI.
🌟 I am on the job market seeking postdoc positions centering (1) philosophical and empirical analyses of responsible communication in Machine Learning, and (2) the policy and regulatory possibilities that follow. If you know a good fit, please reach out to me at tfk5237@psu.edu.
UPDATES
- I presented Work-in-Progress (w/ Dana Calacci, Nasser Eledroos, David Gray Widder, Dasha Pruss) titled “A Relational Conception of AI Hype in AI-Based Tools in Policing Context” that was accepted to the Hype Studies Conference in Barcelona, Spain, slides avaible upon chat.
- (2025 Jul) Lead author paper (w/ Dana Calacci and Cindy Lin) has been accepted to 2025 proceedings of ACM/AAAI AI Ethics and Society which will be held in Madrid, Spain from Oct 20th to 22nd. This paper delineats the epistemic conditions of ML that resist meaningful accountability for the communicative dimension of ML research. Preprint or TL;DR.
- (2025 May) I will attend the Privacy Law Scholar Conference at UCLA this year! Fascinating discussions with Rohan Grover on his WIP on politics of expertise, and Amina Abdu and Abigail Jacob’s (now forthcoming) law review article on standard as metaphor!
- (2025 May) Honored to be one of the finalists of 2025 Sloan Metascience and AI Postdoctoral Fellow, many thanks to Richmond Wong.
- (2024 Oct) Invited by the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech to present my previous and ongoing work on the relationship between Machine Learning research practice reform and the social impact of ML-based technologies.
- (2024 Aug) Passed my comprehensive exam, officially a PhD candidate.
- (2024 Jul) My FAccT paper has been featured by the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. Read the story here.
- (2024 Jun) Presented my first and solo authored paper “From Model Performance Replicability to Claim Replicability” at 2024 ACM Conference Fairness Accountability and Transparency at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Article or TL;DR.
Older updates
- (2024 May) Attended NortheastHCI Conference (an alternative to CHI 2024) at Pittsburgh, PA.
- (2024 Apr) Received ACM FAccT’24 Travel Award.
- (2024 Mar) Received Dean’s Travel Award.
- (2024 Jan) Joined LOGIC(S) as a Liberatory Tech Scholar.
- (2023 Oct) Poster presentation on contradictions between ML replicability and feminist epistemic values at ICDS 2022 Symposium.
- (2023 Sep) I am presenting my work “Function of Replicability in Machine Learning Research” for PhilML 2023 at the University of Tübingen, at Tübingen, Germany.
- (2023 May) Paper abstract accepted by PhilML2023: Philosophy of Science Meets Machine Learning Conference.
- (2023 Apr) I am joined attend the Queer and Trans Graduate Students in STEM Panel as a panelist.
- (2022 Oct) Poster on Replicability in Machine Learning Research admitted to ICDS 2022 Symposium.
- (2022 Jun) I joint organized “Be You in STEM” with the College of IST during the pride parade at State College, PA! 🌈
- (2022 May) Nominated by the College of IST for 2022 Microsoft Ph.D Fellowship.
Contact
tfk5237@psu.edu
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